under the auspices of the late Dr. William
Carter and partronised by the principal inhabitants of the city and
county

Established 1793, enlarged 1829, 1838 &
1871 and closed in 1937 *the building was demolished sometime in the
1970's

There is a book on the hospital
entitled "The Kent and Canterbury Hospital 1790-1987" by F.
Marcus Hall, Richard S. Stevens and John Whyman ISBN 0 951 2464 0 2

"Kent & Canterbury Hospital"
a detail from South View of Canterbury, Hasted

(also showing Ethelbert Tower on
the left and St. Pancras Chapel ruins on the right of the hospital)

January 1807 - Died at Canterbury - Aged 70,
Mrs. Hillbrook, she has left 100l. to the Kent and Canterbury
Hospital, and 20l. to the poor of St. Dunstan's in that city.
(The Athenaeum, vol1)

On Sunday, April 5th,
1891, my 3x great grandfather John TERRY was a patient at the Kent and
Canterbury hospital, he was 71 years old at the time. John passed away
later that year of apoplexy exhaustion at 11 Old Dover Road in Canterbury.
While he was
in the hospital, Zachariah Prentice was the House Surgeon and Arthur
Charles Elliman the Assistant House Surgeon. Frances Amelia Learmouth
was the Matron and there were 14 nurses.

There are Hales Family Estate Records (1250-1868)
available at the Canterbury Cathedral Archives CCA-U85, which include
a Conveyance of 1868 by Thomas Papillon to trustees at Kent and Canterbury
Hospital of legal estate in hospital buildings and land, and Deeds and
Documents (8) of 1791, concerning the establishment of the Kent and
County Hospital on part of St. Augustine's Abbey in Longport in 1791.

Kentish Register 1793 - Saturday,
September 28. At a weekly board of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital,
it appeared that since its first institution on the 26th of April, that
57 patients have been admitted, and 23 discharged; of whom 15 have been
cured, 7 have received benefits, 1 no relief, 4 have died, and 30 remain
on the books.

From the report of the managers of the General
Kent and Canterbury Hospital, for the last year, it appears that the
in and outpatients on the 31st of December, 1805, were 126; and that
592 persons have been since admitted. Of these have been discharged
cured 294; received benefit 62; discharged for irregularity 25; died
43. The number remaining in the house is 36; and the outpatients on
the books are 100. During the same period 384 persons have been innoculated
with the cow-pox, at the hospital, gratis.
MM1807

1815 - Died at Canterbury, 75, Mr. John Williamson,
surgeon apothecary, and senior surgeon to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital
from its first institution, and for some years past treasurer to the
Kent Medical Benevolent Society.

419 in-patients and 470 out-patients, were
admitted, during the last year, into the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
1308 were, in the same period, inoculated for the cow-pox. MM1815

The Kent and Canterbury Hospital 1794,
showing Ethelberts tower on the left

"...that Sir Edward Hales, bart. obligingly
parted with a field of about three acres, walled round, on the East
side of the city, on an elevated, airy situation, and in every respect
adapted to the design."

Died at Canterbury, Mrs. Ann BATGER, matron
of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
TNMM1816

1824 Extraordinary Operation - An extraordinary
operation was lately performed at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital,
and which has been attended with the happiest results. A patient was
received some time since with a very bad case of diseased liver; after
some time the case assumed the worst possible appearance, and it was
resolved, as the only chance of preserving life, to tap the liver. The
operation was ably performed by Mr. FITCH, senior surgeon of that institution,
in the presence of other gentlemen of the faculty connected with the
establishment. Upon the liver being touched, upwards of five pints of
diseased matter immediately flowed from the wound. A tube, nine inches
in length, was then introduced and retained in the wound, through which
a pint of the same fluid was daily evacuated for a week. Kentish
Paper

"The Kent and Canterbury Infirmary was
opened for the reception of patients on the 1st of September, 1793,
under the auspices of Dr. William CARTER, and patronized by the principal
inhabitants of the city and county. The building, which is spacious,
and well adapted to the purpose, was erected on part of the ancient
cemetery of St. Augustine's Abbey, and contains apartments for a house
surgeon and sixty patients, the latter receiving the gratuitous attendance
of two physicians and four surgeons."

From the 1831 Topographical Dictionary

1838

Patron, The Most Rev. William Howley, D.D. (archbishop),
Lambeth Place

"In 1838, it was enlarged, and completely
remodeled, so that now there is ample accommodation for one hundred
and twenty patients. Since the commencement of this Samaritan institution,
up to December 1845, no less than 19,582 in-patients, and 28,389 out-patients,
have partaken of its healing benefits."

History, Gazetteer & Directory of
Kent, Vol. II, 1847

1847

Cornelius Harrison Browne, House Surgeon,
Canterbury Hospital

"Kent & Canterbury Hospital"
a view from the air

"Death, March 17th, at Canterbury, aged
72, Edward Scudamore, esq. M.D. one of the Physicians of the Kent and
Canterbury hospital." GM1850

"Obituary, February 13, 1853, At the
Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Cornelius Harrison Browne, Fellow of the
Royal College of Surgeons, London, and fifteen years House Surgeon at
the above named institution." GM1853
*he is noted in the Royal College of Surgeons 1844

1848-49 Cholera Outbreak

"While the printers are preparing this
Number for our readers, the British Medical Association is concluding
a very pleasant meeting at Canterbury by after-dinner speeches. The
Address of the New President, Dr. Lochee, on Tuesday, was considered
by all present to be a great success. It was a very able and thoroughly
satisfactory Address. In the evening some very stringent resolutions
against professional intercourse with Homeopaths were passed almost
unanimously. The precise words shall be given in our next Number. On
Wednesday, after a public breakfast, Dr. Markham read the Address in
Medicine, which was extremely well received. Papers on Ovarian Disease,
by Mr. Spencer Wells; Excision of Joints, by Mr. Price; Special Hospitals,
by Mr. Martin; and Cardiac Apnea, by Dr. Richardson, followed. Mr. Martin's
Paper was succeeded by a long and interesting discussion, but no resolution
was brought before the Association. In the afternoon the Dean Accompanied
the members round the Cathedral, and became a most kind and instructive
guide. The clergy vied with their Medical friends in entertaining the
members, and many were the pleasant dinner parties in the old town.
In the evening the Deanery was thrown open, and a selection of glees
and songs by members of the choir made a very brilliant soiree, graced
by many of the fair daughters of Kent, unusually pleasant. Little very
important business was done, but there was a great deal of very agreeable
gossip, and many a busy Doctor will hereafter recall his holiday at
Canterbury as one of his most pleasant recollections."

The Medical Times
and Gazette July 27, 1861

Medical Times and Gazette - 1854

A boy aged 12, in good health, a patient in
the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, had suffered for about six months.
A stone consisting of lithates, and weighing five scruples, was extracted.
Recovered.

A man of irritable constitution, aged 24,
a patient in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. He had suffered very
severely from the stone, and his health was considerably undermined.
A large oxalate of lime calculus was removed, which weighed three ounces
and a half. Although coated with phosphates, it had a very rugged exterior,
marked with many sharp prominences. No bad symptoms followed, and the
man recovered well.

Vacancies - General Kent and Canterbury Hospital
- There is a vacancy for a Dispenser and Assistant House-Surgeon.

1858

D.A. Haffenden, Esq., House Surgeon

Thomas Gambier, Dispenser

Rev. C.W. Bewsher, Chaplain

Thomas Southee, Secretary

Miss Jane Young, Matron

Medical Times and Gazette - 1859

A man aged 66, under care on account of albuminuria,
was suddenly seized with laryngitis. The symptoms having become urgent,
laryngotomy was resorted to; but it was too late, and death took place
before the operation was completed.

Then at Canterbury we have a case of poisoning
by mistake, by a Druggist, who seems to have sold a draught containing
a third part of laudanum for a black draught, and killed a young man
in 12 hours. As the Druggist has been committed to take his trial for
manslaughter, we need not say more about this case at present. The public
have been startled to find that, but for a circumstance almost accidental,
at least two other unfortunate persons whose death is now the subject
of inquiry, might have gone to their graves and no suspicion been excited
that their death was other than a natural one; for it is certain that,
had not the accused, by his conduct and voluntary statements, set the
inquiry afoot, it never would have taken place. In many cases where
the poisonous black draughts were swallowed they produced great pain
and vomiting, which lasted many hours; but the poison having been thus
thrown off the stomach, death did not follow.

Poisonings by Mistake - The carelessness of
a chemist at Canterbury has caused much anxiety in that city. A young
man named Cole being unwell, his wife purchased a black draught and
blue pill at the shop of Mr. Reeve. The pill was administered in due
form at night, the draught in the morning. About an hour after taking
the draught he became unable to walk, was got into bed, became drowsy,
and in three hours died. He was buried; but the suddenness of his death
occasioning talk, his corpse was exhumed and examined; and was found
to contain laudanum in considerable quantity. In fact, in making up
the medicine, the shopman had taken up a bottle from which the label
had dropped, and which contained laudanum, and used it for a constituent
of the black draught, in proportion at least one-third of the whole.
The chemist was committed on a charge of manslaughter. It is well known
that the formula of "blue pill and black draught" is highly
popular and in great request; it is frequently made in considerable
quantities; and this fatal phial appears to have contained only its
proportion of a large decoction. Consequently the alarm spread far and
wide. Many persons had taken a "blue pill and black draught,"
purchased at Mr. Reeve's shop; many had been violently affected after
it, and some were said to have died. The corpse of another person was
disinterred and an inquest held; but the circumstances clearly pointed
to a natural death. It does not appear that death was in any other case
reasonably traced to the carelessness of Mr. Reeve or his shopman. AR1859

Noted on the back of the card "Patients
& Matron???, 14th M.B.F.A. Isolation Hospital, Canterbury"

There was a Sanatorium/Isolation
Hospital in Stodmarsh Road (Dr. Frank Watcher)

Charge of Manslaughter against a Druggist.
John Reeve, a very respectable young man, surrendered to take his trial
for the manslaughter of Thomas Benjamin Cole*. The prisoner carried
on the buisness of a chemist at Canterbury, and his brother, a youth
of seventeen, acted as his assistant. The deceased was a young man,
a tailor, at Canterbury, and on the 19th of December he complained of
a sick headache, and went to the prisioner's shop and obtained a draught
and some pills. On the following day he sent his sister to the prisoner's
shop for some more medicine, and he handed her a phial which was supposed
to contain the ordinary black draught, and told her that her brother
was to take it with the pills. The deceased took the draught as directed,
and very shortly afterwards he became very ill, and a medical gentleman
named Andrews** was sent for, who from the symptoms he exhibited formed
an opinion that he was suffering from epilepsy, and he prescribed some
remedies which had no effect, and the deceased died a few hours afterwards.
A coroner's inquest was held upon the body, when the jury upon the evidence
before them, returned a verdict of "Natural Death." The result
of further inquiries that were made however, left very little doubt
that a quantity of opium had been by mistake administered in the draught
taken by the deceased. There was, however, no evidence to show by whose
hand the draught was made up, and according to the medical testimony
the symptoms exhibited by the deceased were more in conformity with
the supposition that the death arose from epilepsy than from a narcotic
poison. The learned Judge having summed up, the jury, after a short
deliberation, returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

The Chemical News 1860

*Thomas Benjamin Cole, could be the
son of George Cole, Tailor of Canterbury, the family was living at 11
Broad Street in 1851

**There was a Thomas Andrews and Alfred
B. Andrews both M.R.C.S.L, L.A.C, General Practioners in Canterbury
in 1851 on St. Alphage Lane

Medical News - June 22, 1861 - appointments
- Dr. Thomas Boycott was recently elected one of the Physicians to the
Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury

1861

William Blasson, Surgeon & Apothecary
(Resident Medical Officer)

ELIZA TERRY, Matron, age 41

James L. Wilson, Assistant House Surgeon

Ann Dalryample, Nurse

Ester Porter, Nurse

Ellen Dalryample, Nurse

Susan Barry, Nurse

Mary A. Gilham, Nurse

March 6, 1869, The Lancet - Mr. J. LAIRD has
been appointed assistant house surgeon and dispenser to the Kent and
Canterbury Hospital, vice B. P. B. Burroughs, M.R.C.S.E. resigned.

June 12, 1869, The Lancet - Serious
constructive defects having been found to exist in the Kent and Canterbury
Hospital, plans for necessary alterations have been adopted.

Kent & Canterbury Hospital - Assistant
House Surgeon and Dispenser. Candidates must be duly qualified and registered.
Applications with testimonials to the secretary, at the hospital, Canterbury,
on or before April 30.

June 5th, 1875

Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury -
Surgeon. Candidates must be duly qualified. Applications, with testimonials
to the Secretary, before June 18. Also a vacancy for House Surgeon and
Dispenser, Candidates must be duly qualified and registered. Applications
with testimonials to the Secretary on or before June 25.

May 3, 1879,
The Medical Times and Gazette

Vacancies

Kent and Canterbury Hospital - Assistant House
Surgeon and dispenser. Candidates must be unmarried, registered as legally
qualified to practise medicine, and not more than fifty years of age.
Qualifications and testimonials to the Secretary on or before May 23.
*ran May 10th, and 17th as well

1880's

William Shaw, House surgeon

Archibald H Montfont, Surgeon

Annie G. Cook, Matron

Nurses

Mary Arnell

Georgiana Hayes

Rebecca Fines

Emma Penticost

Martha Bailey

Elizabeth ?enaham

Mary Payne

Jane M. L. Laker

Annie Mara

Mary Ann Congdon

*June 5, 1880 - The British Medical Journal

Kent and Canterbury Hospital - House Surgeon.
Salary £80 per annum, with board, lodging, and washing. Applications
not later than June 25th.

"The Kent and Canterbury Hospital, in
Longport street, which owes it's origin to the late well-known Canterbury
physician, Dr. Carter, late fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, was finished
in 1793; two additional wings have been added; and there is also a Dispensary."

"Kent & Canterbury Hospital"
detail from the map in J. Chales Cox; Canterbury A history of the ancient
city, 1905

"This building
is situated in Longport, on part of the grounds formerly belonging to
the Monastery of St. Augustine. On the north side of it is the wall
which bounds the precincts of the Abbey. This hospital was finished
in 1793, the expenses being defrayed by voluntary contributions, upon
which depends its maintenance. It was considerably extended and enlarged
by the late James Tillard, Esq., of Street End, near this city. Two
wings have since been added by public subscription, and the whole edifice
has undergone complete renovation."

Goulden's Guide to Canterbury and the
Cathedral c. 1890's

1893

A.C. Elliman Esq. M.R.C.S.,
House Surgeon

L.A. Winter Esq. M.R.C.S., Assistant
House Surgeon

Miss A. M. Messum, Matron

Rev. H. Heward, Chaplain

Mr. A.J. Lancaster,
Secretary

1901
- 30 Officials
and their families and 74 inmates in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital30
of

1902
- Miss Fanny Blackman
of Ramsgate, Kent left 10,000 £ to the hospital in 1902, to found
a Blackman Ward

Dear Sir - We are glad ot be able to announce
that the Hospital is now free from scarlet fever, and that we are in
a position to receive in-patients as usual.

Will you please make it known that we are
in want of the following: - Old linen and calico, warm left-off dressing
gowns, night gowns for children, and a set of baby clothes, and we should
be very much obliged if any of your readers would kindly help us with
a fresh supply.

Yours truly,

Arthur J. Lancasters, secretary

January 31, 1894

July 1896 - A
grand fete in connection with charitable institutions in Canterbury,
but particularly the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, took place on the
9th.

...two additional wings have been added and
it now contains 91 beds: the number of in-patients treated during the
year 1912 was 1,084 and of out-patients, 1,350 and 1,320 casualties,
besides 784 dental cases; the daily average of in-patients was 71 and
their average time in the hospital was 25 days. In 1902 the late Miss
Fanny Blackman of Ramsgate, bequeathed £10,000 to the hospital
to found a Blackman Ward. 1913